Student A: (grabs the tray of materials) “I’m going to pour the baking soda in the cup!”
Student B: “STOOOOOOPPPPP!”
Student C: “Ok. Student A can do that, then I’ll do the next thing. What were the directions?”
Student B: “I think the directions are under the tray.”
Student C: (knocks tray over and grabs directions) “DUDE, you weren’t supposed to pour the baking soda yet!”

These are just a few of my favorite strategies so that I am not getting interrupted nearly as much during my small group time! Please remember that you need to explicitly teach, model, and practice all of these with consistency…

Have you ever tried student-led reading groups in your classroom? Have you ever felt like your students were not putting forth their best effort? Using student-led reading groups can be motivating for your students but extremely hard for you to monitor all of the groups at the same time. By holding your students accountable with these quick group check sheets, you can finally make student-led groups work in your classroom…

Hey friends!! Just popping in to chat a little about MATH TALK! I completely admit that looking back I used to kinda stink at teaching math. You sit, listen to me teach, now go practice it on your own.. you know how to do it, right? Yes, shameful head shrug! I have told you a few times that I have this new LOVE for math. We PLAY, we TALK, we get LOUD, we hold our friends ACCOUNTABLE, we EXPLORE, we REASON, we DEFEND ourselves… we DO MATH TALK…